Ahoy there, me hearties! Designing Worlds sets sail with the pirates!

Pirate fort at Jabberwock - image by PJ Trenton

Join Designing Worlds jn our Northpoint studio at 2pm SLT today, Monday30th May as we pay a visit to the Isles of Jabberwock, and explore the phenomenon of sea-going pirates in Second Life!

We'll be looking at the world of the eighteenth century Caribbean, and exploring the region of Jabberwock which has pirate lairs, a Brisitish settlement and plenty of seas and desert islands to sail among - to say nothing of having battles and performing deeds of knavery or derring do, as the fancy takes you!

British settlement at Port Charles - image by PJ Trenton

And, with any luck, we'll be able to see a battle in progress too.

We'll be talking to Antigua Jewell, the owner of Jabberwock and the associated sims about the pirate way of life, and we'll also be looking at the amazing ships that sail around its islands.

Pirate ships - image by PJ Trenton

So, as the pirates apparently say, pull up a seat, sit aft, make aye your grog be t' hand, and prepare t' enjoy t' show, landlubbers!

The Designing Worlds show starts at 2pm SLT, but you should be in our Northpoint studios by 1.30pm at the very latest to make sure of getting a seat. And this week we are asking people coming to the studio to wear their best pirate gear as afterwards they can join us on the beautiful Isles of Jabberwock. And talking like a pirate while watching the show is encouraged too!

Pirate ships at Jabberwock - image by PJ Trenton

Or – if you can’t attend in person – tune in at 2pm SLT on Monday for the live show – where you can now chat with other audience members and even some of the participants during the show – or catch it later in the week on our shows page on the Treet.tv web site.

The 3rd Annual Robber Barons Ball ~ 2nd Annual Jail and .............

New Babbage

Piermont Landing

Proudly Presents

The 3rd Annual Robbers Baron Ball 

But Wait There is More .........................

Have YOU seen This Man ???

Well ....

Piermont Landing Presents
The 2nd  Annual

Jail and .........

Who will help keep the Evil Doctor Obolensky Jailed

Who will help Bail Out the Good  Duchess  Gabrielle Riel

How could this happen ?

Why are they there ?

How much can they raise ?

What could possibly go wrong ?

Join Us to find out these answers and More ...

*  A joint benefit effort for Relay for Life

 Team New Babbage and Team Aether  Chrononauts

Don't Miss this fun , entertaining Unforgettable Steam Nation Event

with all proceeds going  to Relay For Life of Second Life 2011 

Scoundrel Scavenger Hunt

Ahoy!

Armada will be hosting their first Sim Wide Scavenger hunt on Sunday, May 22nd. They will be dividing all entrants into teams to follow a set of clues leading to pirate treasure buried about the Armada Sims. Weapons, directions and rum provided. Show up and hunt, or just watch their mad proceedings. Any questions or comments contact Vernden Jervil or Captain Static.

Place: Armada Cutwater
Date: 22nd May, 2011
Time: 11am to 1pm SLT

Yo ho, yo ho, the pirate life,
The flag o’ skull and bones,
A merry hour, a hempen rope,
And hey for Davy Jones.
J.M. Barrie

Situation normal, All smogged up

From our New Babbage correpondent, Beq Janus

As previously reported the pigmented attacks on New Babbage were defeated after a combined assault by the New Babbage navy and an ad-hoc group of New Babbage citizens. And now, as the ship lays stricken in the port still leaking its foul cargo into the sea, the city is faced with the challenge of removing the visible stains left by the onslaught.

I write this evening to report on some degree of success. I had been pondering upon the matter of paint removal at length, faced with the undesirable task of scrubbing my properties clean of the purple stain. Yet it is to a pair of young urchins that I must assign the credit for what has come to pass.

"I quite loiked that there purpal", remarked a grubby faced young girl, as the pair passed me by. I was knelt by my doorstep with a jar of dilute acid, removing the paint. "It were all summery and noice, loike the weffer 'as bin". Her companion, looked up at the sky, and nodded, a little look of puzzlement upon his face.

"Oi don' know wots goin' on wiv it all. Never know'd the Sun to shine 'ere.", he remarked, "Ois not seen no rain since Mundy".

And they were right. The sun never shines here, not like this, the ever present smog had thinned, the boilers and furnaces of the city had run low, either sealed with paint or their owners distracted by the bombardment. The skies had cleared and no rains had fallen.

It so happens that I have recently been studying a work of scientific literature by a Mr Robert Angus Smith, published a few years ago, in 1852, but recently brought to our venerable library. In his work Mr Smith showed the relationship of atmospheric pollution to the Ph of the precipitation, something he termed "acid rain".

I looked down at the jar of acid in my hand as the idea struck me. Within a few minutes I was running across the city to my factory, a sorry sight, itself, all daubed in mauve. My factory is responsible for the production of much of the fresh air pumped into the tunnels of the vernian sea. Air sucked in from the atmosphere and scrubbed clean by the complicated mechanism within. the idea was simple enough and within a few hours the necessary adjustments were in place.

I threw the lever that re-engaged the drive to the large fans above my head. Fans that would now run backwards. The air scrubber had become the polluter. pushing vast amounts of concentrated soot and filth back inot the air, within minutes a dark cloud was forming above my property, soon it was spreading across the city, blotting out the sun. Temperatures dropped and in answer to our wishes the skies clouds cooled and rain fell opnce more upon the city. In hindsight, perhaps I should have warned people to stay inside as testing the rain with a little litmus showed it to be considerbaly more acidic than regular rain. It was not long before the paint began to fall away, washed off and dissolved by the downpour.

I sat back and watched the rain fall, smiling to myself as little by little my beloved city returned back to its rusty brown hues.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you to all who helped with this event and the little stories weaved around it.
The vendors (bombs) placed around the city were succesful and at the time of collection had registered over 18,000 Linden dollars (including a special matching donation from a generous Steampunk).

Thank you to everyone, for having a little fun with this.

Farewell, Farewell from The Primgraph Magazine

Today I have some sad news to share with you.

After a lot of reflection and discussion, we have decided to close The Primgraph as a magazine. It will continue as – I hope – a very active blog, with its mixture of news and events and the occasional story.

The Quest for the Golden Prim will also continue as a free-standing quarterly. Indeed, we are looking into ways to bring this to a wider audience outside virtual worlds.

The Primgraph Press in Glengarry will be closed which is, frankly, breaking my heart as I loved that build and the AWESOME printing press created for us by Edward Pearse.

The Daily Prim offices in Seraph City will remain, to be used as the basis for roleplay. We plan to run more murder mysteries from there.

Why are we closing the magazine?
To put it simply, the revenue we raise through the magazine doesn’t make it economically viable. Prim Perfect has, in effect, had to underwrite The Primgraph – and that just doesn’t make sense.

This has been despite the best efforts of a whole range of people – including our three ad managers: Diva Regina, Elegia Underwood and Bellaluna Galaxy. They all worked extremely hard, but it became very clear that the market for The Primgraph is, sadly, too small to sustain a magazine of the quality we wanted to produce.

Both Bellaluna and Terry Lightfoot (our amazing designer) have, with regret, stepped down after the last issue for real life reasons. However, Terry has agreed to help us make a Farewell issue of the magazine which will go out later this year, which will contain the second half of Denny Kozlov’s brilliant story, A Clockwork Romance, among other things.

What about Prim Perfect?
Prim Perfect is doing very well indeed. We have a very solid core of advertisers and the magazine is financially sound and very popular. So we are glad of having time freed up where we can continue to grow this and other projects.

And we are delighted to say that you will be able to continue to read our great writers and see the work of our awesome photographers in Prim Perfect and – we hope – on The Primgraph blog.

Saffia Widdershins, Editrix
Ceejay Writer, Deputy Editrix

New Babbage takes up arms against the purple menace

Breaking news from our reporter in New Babbage, Beq Janus.

As reported earlier today the patience of the citizens of New Babbage had been pushed beyond breaking point. This evening a purple posse descended upon the Port area of New Babbage with only one thing in mind. To put a stop to the perpetrator of this purple pigmented persecution. Gathering upon the quayside armed with wrenches and all manner of bizarre and unlikely weaponry the small but committed group stood facing the ship as it relentlessly fired its missiles into the heart of our city.

Gentlemen,ladies, mer, fae and beasts, one and all, of a single minded determination to end this tyranny, waited until just before 3pm when they charged the great iron ship and began the mission to destroy the vessel.


For over an hour they assaulted the hull and armaments of the vessel but to no avail, a steady stream of purple projectiles were still be shot deep into the city. If there was anybody inside the ship they never made their presence known. the valiant citizens' army battled on and were soon joined by Commodore Dagger and her naval ironclads.

With the ironclads pounding her hull and the boarding party, trying to dismantle the vessel bolt by bolt, the paint ship showed no sign of relenting. Until in one final consolidated assault a loud pop was heard from within the confines of the ship and the great gun ceased to fire. An almighty cheer echoed form the walls of the surrounding buildings of the port. Mission accomplished the good people of Babbage had once again shown the Doctor that his plans no matter how evil, would never crush them.

Tonight the vessel sits silently languishing in its own purple slick. The city waits with bated breath to see how the Doctor reacts. Already there are rumours that the Doctor himself was in the ship but the wiser heads note that the doctor rarely does his own dirty work.

(( Tonight, by virtue of the generous actions of the residents of New Babbage, Team New Babbage passed the 2000 US dollar fund raising milestone, making New Babbage the first steamlands team to become a platinum RFLSL team for 2011. This weekend marks the hlaf way point of the campaign for 2011. I look forward to seeing what more can be achieved in the coming weeks. ))

New Babbage sees red over purple onslaught

For nearly a week not the citizens of New Babbage have lived under fire; a barrage of burgundy bombs launched upon the city by an evil genius.

Our New Babbage reporter Beq Janus who broke the news of this attack last weekend posted the following report this morning.

I woke this morning, this the sixth morning since the barrage began, and stared out across a sea of purple rooftops. Despite the litter of unexploded mauve missiles across our fair city, it is clear that many assaults have been succesful.

From the rooftops and walls to airships and chimney stacks, factories, homes and shops. Everyone, I have met in the past few days has borne the purple stain upon their skin, evidence of their oppression. No doubt there will be many tales told in the pubs of Babbage of these purple days.But feelings are turning from resentment to rebellion, as one they are rising up, it is time this victimisation in violet ended.



The reports of the mysterious boat, so bravely brought back by the city spies, from the lair of the evil genius Doctor Obolensky were correct and accurate. It was indeed emblazoned with the word 'Red' and the word 'Blue'. One label per tank. The boat has been holding its own in the port all week bombarding the city with its mighty cannon. The dastardly doctor was mixing the purple paint and launching his attacks from the sea.

I have had word from Commdore Dagger of the New Babbage Navy, who have recently returned from manouvres, that they are ready to end this and will attack today. I have heard too, the mutterings of an uprising, a people's army against the purple menace.

If the rumours are to be believed many of the brave men and women of Babbage, their clothes and skin now tinted purple, will wear their colours as warpaint and descend upon the port en masse to assault the ship and take the doctor captive.

So I will be joining my fellows at 3pm SLT in Port Babbage to see the bitter end of this.I hope to see many comrades by my side.

-----------------------------------------------------

From May 7 to May 13 the Second Life grid will be turning purple!

Thousands of Second Life residents will be painting their
stores and houses purple, wearing purple clothes, purple hair, even
purple skin, in order to show their support for the Relay For Life of Second Life and to spread a purple Message of Hope.

the Aether Chrononauts RFL Team presents the Changhigh Trinity Sisters

I attended a show of the Changhigh Trinity Sisters for the first time two years ago at the Fantasy Fair 2009 and I was immediately hooked. I became a fan and I started to follow them as often as I could. At the Fantasy Faire of 2010 I bid hard to win a show of theirs at the fair auction.

Attending their fire show is an a amazing experience, as one is caught in a variety of colors and sounds.

The animations and the particle effects are designed and custom made for the show and they provide a unique experience

This year I am incredibly happy that the Changhigh Trinity Sisters have accepted to perform in a RFL fundrising event organized by the Aether Chrononauts and that will take place in the beautiful location of Cala Mondrago, as part of the local Fire and Ice Festival.

It will be Saturday the 14th of May at 1 PM SLT
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cala%20Mondrago/33/57/38

A show not to be missed !

GO RELAY !

Kudos To The Nation of AL Andalus with a Most Special Thank YOU for The Generous RFLSL Donation To Three Steamland RFLTeams!

 Kudos  To The Nation of AL Andalus with  a Most Special Thank YOU for The Generous RFLSL Donation To Three Steamland RFL Teams !
As we all rush around in "all our worlds" It is important and nice

to take and make time to give thanks and Make note of a Beautiful Nation

that took and made the time to do then give and share with us ..

Until there is a Cure  we all Relay !!  

The Nation of Al Andalus ..

had an amazing event this Past weekend to benefit Relay for Life of Second Life ..

But here is the catch they donated all the money they earned to

three other active Sister Nations with Relay For Life of Second Life Teams .

Each of these said nations were most touched and honored to be thought of ..

This Post is a tribute and thank you from each of us to The Al Andalus Nation ..

Rose Donates 43,500.00 lindens to The New Babbage Relay For Life of Second Life Kiosk

**********************************

We've placed vendors for Team Caledon, Aether Choronauts and New Babbage in key locations.

These are the teams we will divide our horse auction proceeds among. The horse auction is at noon.

It would be great if you could advertise Feria For Life on your groups.

Al Andalus does not have a RFL team, and this is not a RFL sanctioned event...

We are a non profit in our own right, but want to give back without the commitment necessary to have a team.

And we support your work!

Thanks. Rose.

"Around the sims you will see vendors for three of our sister sims's RFL teams.

As you know, we do not charge anything for our Feria events, though hours and hours of volunteer time and resources go into the planning.

Please consider this your chance to say thank you to your volunteers, by donating to the Kiosks.

Cancer has had its day, it is time to stop it."

*****************************************************

The Results

Below is the letter we each received after this Amazing Event .

***********************************

Dear Relay for Life Liasions: Caledon, New Babbage and Aether Chrononauts:

As you know, the Al Andalus Sims celebrated our third Feria last week. I hope you got to go to some of the events as they were all quite excellent. From discussions on creating trustworthy space in our communities to the silly fun of riding Bart the Bull, we are very proud of the event. But the one that makes us most proud directly effects you. On Saturday, May 7, we designated the day "Feria for Life." The events included a concert by Arimo Teixeira, a charity Amaretto Horse Auction and a closing ball. The participants were all informed that donations made that day would be made to RFL, through your teams.
The auction was organized by Lilith Ivory, who spent many hours collecting horses, setting up the Auction, preparing notecards with all the details or the horses, and securing and working with a professional Auctioneer, Chuckie Boozehound, who called the Auction.

It was held in the Fortress of the Al Andalus Ahlambra.
All the horses were freely donated by Amaretto Breeders across the grid. We also accepted donations that were not tied to the purchases. The auctioneer was paid 10% of the proceeds of the Auction tally.
Al Andalus chose to support your teams because of your support of our people and events in the past. We considered having our own team, but just didn't have the time to participate in RFL at the level of quality that we have come to expect from our group.

I am happy to report to you that the horse auction including both purchase prices and donations netted 130500 L for RFL. Your teams share of that is 43,500 L. In addition, we rezzed kiosks with your teams number through the sims at the events. Those kiosks show additional donations to the three teams totaling 3050 L, which were paid on your teams behalf directly to RFL.
Please advise how you wish the transfer of funds to be made.

Thank you for your hard work for RFL, and your friendship.

Very truly yours,

Rose Springvale.

Weekend RFLofSL antics from Team Caledon

-Lucien Brentano, Team Caledon Technology and Communications

Good afternoon and well met!

As the 2011 Relay for Life of SecondLife season reaches the halfway point, Team Caledon is ramping up their schedule of fun and innovative fundraising events. This weekend, Team Caledon presents not one but TWO events for the Steampunk set - the Time-Essentail Airship Wreck Rally (TEAWR) on Saturday, May 14 followed on Sunday by Fishing For Life. Both events promise to be wacky, fun-filled affairs, with the wacky, edge-of-your-seat danger of the TEAWR counterbalanced nicely by the soothing, yet still amusing Neo Realms ichthyoid-hunting of Fishing for Life.

We hope to see you there!

New Babbage Attacked in Purple Paint Blitz

From our New Babbage Reporter Beq Janus.
Mauve Melée
This morning I found that my home had been subjected to, what I took to be, an act of wanton vandalism. The walls of my home were slick with purple paint.
I looked out through the (now purple tinted) windows, to find that something more foul by far was in play.

The remains of numerous mauve missiles, many still leaking their purple payload, were strewn about the street.

Taking my trusty toolbelt with me, I quickly set about defusing those that I found, but simply got myself covered in the confounded purple paint. I was going to need help with this, so I ran off into the city to seek my fellow engineers.

[ Note: The missiles are RFLSL vendors giving you a fetching set of purple splats as a tattoo and clothing layers for a minimum donation of just 100L$]

Plethora of Purple
As I ran around the city I found that, as I had feared, it was not a personal attack but a city wide assault. Purple patches were appearing all over the city and every now and then the distinctive "whistle...splat" of a plumetting, purple projectile, echoed eerily through the alley ways.

Fear has been struck into our hearts. This is a crime worse than the threat of physical harm. The People of New Babbage are no strangers to danger, but bright colours! I am really not sure they are ready for this. Bring back the sooty browns and greys.



The Central Station in Babbage Square has been damaged but only lightly at this stage. Whoever is responsible for this we must take solace in the fact that their incompetence has meant that many of the devices have failed to explode and simply lay sparying a miasma of mauuve into the air about them.



Suspicions aroused?
In separate and as yet unconfirmed reports, a new boat has appeared moored near Doctor Obolensky's clock tower. Its exact purpose remains unknown and there is some confusion in the reports with one witness remarking that it has the name "Red" daubed on the side of a large tank, whilst another insists, it is named "Blue". The mystery deepens but I'm sure we'll figure it out.




[ As noted in this very journal

From May 7 to May 13 the Second Life grid will be turning purple!

Thousands of Second Life
residents will be painting their stores and houses purple, wearing
purple clothes, purple hair, even purple skin, in order to show their
support for the Relay For Life of Second Life and to spread a purple Message of Hope.

This is Team New Babbage's way of celebrating this event with a simple story to cover the theme. Come see New Babbage as it is succumbs to the purple onslaught.
RFLSL 2011 : Team New Babbage Team #90
]

The Second Life grid is turning purple!

We've received a press release from Relay for Life of Second Life:

From May 7 to May 13 the Second Life grid will be turning purple!

Thousands of Second Life residents will be painting their stores and houses purple, wearing purple clothes, purple hair, even purple skin, in order to show their support for the Relay For Life of Second Life and to spread a purple Message of Hope.

Paint SL purple!
Bailey Dazy, 2011 Relay For Life Special Events Chair and ‘Paint SL Purple’ lead, explains: ‘In 2008, a real life Relay in the United States began holding an event called Paint the Town Purple in support of their local Relay. During the American Cancer Society summit in 2008, Stingray9798 Raymaker (American Cancer Society representative in Second Life) and Trader1 Whiplash (then the Mission Chair for Relay For Life of Second Life) heard about the real life event and discussed how this concept could work in Second Life, and very enthusiastically brought the idea back with them and introduced it to the Relay For Life committee. The rest is history ... in 2009 ‘Paint SL Purple’ was developed and introduced to the Second Life community as a one-day event.

‘But, given the creativity and wonderful things that can be done in Second Life, we came to realize that one day was not enough and that it was over too quickly. In 2010 we extended the event to a full week. We’re keeping the tradition going in 2011 with another week filled with Purple Pride from May 7 to May 13 to show Second Life what we Relay for!’

And May 13th, of course, will marrk the start of another great Relay for Life of Second Life event - the start of the Home and Garden Expo!

'We’re nearly halfway there!'
‘Paint SL Purple’ week culminates in the halfway point between the start of fundraising and the main Relay event. After nearly two months of fundraising, and with another two months to go, 2011 Event Chair MamaP Beerbaum reports that SL relayers have already raised an awesome US$125,650 -- over half the total amount raised last year! To mark the halfway point there will be a Halfway There Fair on May 14-15 where relayers can relax and celebrate before embarking on another two months of fundraising, culminating in Relay weekend on July 16-17.

All Second Life residents are invited to show their support for Relay For Life by turning their space or their avatar purple on May 7. Contact Bailey Dazy in world for a ‘Paint SL Purple’ toolkit or grab a pot of purple paint from the American Cancer Society island.


Poppy Zabelin, Relay For Life of Second Life PR and Marketing Chair, added: ‘Help us document this event by sending your pictures to our Photography Chair IshtarAngel Micheline (ishtarskiss@gmail.com) or upload them directly to our Flickr stream.’

____________________________

About Relay For Life of Second Life
Relay For Life® is the signature fundraiser of the American Cancer Society. Relay For Life of Second Life (RFL of SL) is an annual activity that takes place in Second Life® in July each year. Volunteers form or join teams to have fun while fundraising and raising awareness from mid-March through mid-July. In July teams build campsites and walk a track, just like in a real world Relay. The main RFL of SL track event this year will take place on July 16-17. We will walk a virtual track for 24 hours, just like in a real world Relay For Life. Team members build and gather at their team campsites, enjoy live music, participate in fun events, and explore the many Relay sims and the incredible builds by some of Second Life’s top designers, as the event runs overnight and into the next morning.

In 2010 Relay For Life of Second Life attracted more than 120 teams with participants from over 30 countries, held over 300 team fundraising events between March and July, and raised over US$222,000 (that’s REAL US dollars) for cancer research and education. The funds raised go to research, advocacy, patient services and programs, with 12-15% going to international projects. Just as in the real world, RFL of SL is an international event.